Have fun and check macho attitudes at the door. Your training partner is your friend and is there to help you learn. Failing to get out of a hold or being tapped out is educational and will make you a better martial artist. Embrace these experiences and actively try to learn from them by asking questions and striving to improve your defensive capabilities. Having too much ego keeps you from learning and having fun.
4. Wear protective equipment. When training in self-defense oriented ground combat, the groin is an often used target. In order to train strikes to the groin realistically and safely, students, both men and women, should wear groin protectors. When doing more live training drills, wearing a mouth guard is also a good idea for preventing incidental damage to mouth area and for absorbing some of the shock of accidental blows to the head/jaw.
5. Keep your nails trimmed. Finger and toe nails can cause nasty cuts and gashes when doing ground defense training. Breaking a nail can also be quite painful. You should always keep your finger and toe nails trimmed and filed. A freshly cut nail that isn’t filed can be just as dangerous as a long nail.
6. Maintain good hygiene. While this may seem obvious, not everyone realizes how far they have to go for training safety and comfort. Keep your body sensibly clean and keep your B.O. under control. Pay particular attention to the cleanliness of feet because you are in closer proximity of them during ground defense training. If you eat strong foods, brush your teeth or use a mouthwash/breath freshener before training. Lastly, keep your uniform clean. Don’t just leave it in your bag after a sweaty session. The next time you open your bag, the smell will be appalling. If you had a light session, you might be able to get away with just hanging your uniform up to air out, but most of the time, you should be washing it.
7. Don’t train sick or when suffering from an infection. There is a lot of body contact in ground defense and if you’re sick, there is a good chance you’ll pass on your illness to others. You’re also more likely to tire yourself out and make mistakes that can cause injuries when you’re not in good health. It is also very important not to go on the mats if you have a skin infection like ringworm or staph. They are highly contagious and easily spread from person to person or from person to mat to person.
Live Training as a Learning Tool
When you first start training in ground defense, you usually stick to choreographed attacks and defenses giving you more opportunities to develop your skills and techniques. Eventually though, you’ll need to move on from this style of training and apply what you have learned in a more “live” training environment. Ground fighting can be fast and dynamic. Things can change very quickly on the ground, and if you’re not trained to adapt quickly, you may find yourself helpless on the ground if someone gets the jump on you.
Whether you do live training with a partner or in a training circle, you can train at different levels of intensity depending on whether you want to improve your technical applications or increase the difficulty level and realism of the exercise. I like to work with three different levels of intensity with my students, which are as follows:
Level #1: The attacking partner sticks to a single hold down (no striking is allowed). The attacker may resist the defender’s attempts to escape if ineffective, but must always return to their original attack rather than changing their attack. The attacker should loosen up or respond appropriately to the defender’s attacks to vital targets without changing their attack. This style of live training is designed to increase technical understanding and confidence with defensive techniques.
Level #2: Punching attacks are allowed and hold-downs are done with higher intensity. Defenders should strive to get back to their feet within 10 seconds of the start of the attack. If the defender fails to get to their feet, the attacker may change their method of attack. The attacker should still loosen up or respond appropriately to the defender’s vital target attacks without changing their attack. When attacking with punches, use appropriate protective equipment such as mouth guards and gloves. As an alternative to using gloves, light open hand strikes to non-injurious areas may be used. Whichever method you use, the attacker should strike at a power level that is safe for training. Not even MMA fighters spar at full power and intensity for safety reasons. You don’t need to in order to develop your skills. This style of live training is designed to give you a higher level of realism to help you apply your skills under greater pressure.
Level #3: Attackers may change their strategy based on the type of defense used by the defender. A higher level of intensity may be used. The attacker may take measures to resist the defender’s vital target attacks, but still responding appropriately if the defender lands a vital target strike. Again, defenders should still strive to get back to their feet within 10 seconds.
Live Sport-Oriented Ground Grappling as a Training Tool
Even if you have no interest in competitions or tournaments, it is worthwhile to train in sport-oriented ground grappling. There are more and more people training in BJJ and MMA these days and not all of them necessarily do so with honest intentions. If you want to be able to handle skilled sport grapplers in a self-protection scenario, you need to understand what they do. The best way to do that is to train in it. This will make you and your training partners better at playing that type of attacker, which makes you all better at dealing with it.
Here are a variety of ways to train in live sport-oriented ground grappling:
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